For many people living across the length and breadth of the country, this budget has been quite disappointing. It is a disappointment for workers that they see no tax relief whatsoever, except for a very elite few who happen to be building apartments in Dublin that nobody can afford. They seem to be the only people who have been looked after from a taxation point of view. The agricultural sector and farmers in general are also very disappointed. The Minister will probably be aware of that from media reports from the various farm organisations that expressed their disappointment. The TB eradication programme obviously needs to be funded. There have been decades when it has not been funded properly. We see a situation where the bovine TB numbers have been out of control for the past number of years. The TB programme has gone over budget every year since 2020 and it will run over budget again this year. In 2024, over €100 million was spent and estimates are that it could be up to €130 million. We all know that, yet when we ask the Department of public expenditure and reform - our office put in a question to it - about the eradication programme the Minister has now proposed to bring forward, we are told it will cost up to €181.7 million, yet the budget falls well short of that.
Sentiment score: -0.14
Modelling or not, the reality is the number of reactors are going up. That is the problem we have got here.
Sentiment score: -0.16
Therefore, we have a TB eradication programme that is underfunded in the budget. That is the reality of it.
Sentiment score: 0.00
We will see at the end of the year where we are. It has been underfunded in every budget to date.
Sentiment score: 0.00
If we are to go on precedent, we expect it to be the same again. One of the big complaints farmers have is the valuation they are receiving for reactor cattle, which is too low and does not represent the current market value of cattle. I will give an example. James from Sligo sent me a handwritten note only the other day. In May 2025, he lost seven cattle that were valued at 2023 prices. That is the big problem he has. When he goes out to buy like for like to replace those cattle, he is down €6,000 when he goes to the mart to buy the like of those cattle again. That is a major problem we have here. Farmers need to get the current market value for their reactors in order to replace them in their herd. The Minister talked about increasing the ACRES programme and €25 million extra in 2026. I want to find out something from him, as it is not clear. He mentioned additional money, which I want to try to get to the core of. On the new applicants who are in this scheme, will there be more new applicants coming into it or will he give more money to existing applicants? There is €1.5 billion over five years. Has that increased? Is the same money over five years? If it is the same money over five years, then this is not new money. It is just money moving around. That is one of the issues we have to get clear answers on. It is an insult to suggest to farmers they are being given more money because they entered the scheme, when many of them are still awaiting payment from 2022 and 2023. No farmer has been paid for the non-productive investments they applied for over two years, which they have completed and paid the money out for. Yet, they have not got the money back. Tillage farmers in this sector have been let down as well. The Minister said he would bring in a package for them. They were before us last week. We expected to see something in the budget but there is no sign of anything. It is the same thing in so many sectors.
Sentiment score: -0.01
For the beef sector and a whole lot of sectors, nothing is happening. It is a disappointing budget for the agricultural sector.
Sentiment score: -0.25